New master plan unites St. Elizabeth School and church in Waldo

Construction is underway on a $6 million addition and renovation at St. Elizabeth's Catholic School and Parish in the Waldo neighborhood of Kansas City, Mo.

St. Elizabeth’s Early Childhood Center (ECC), located across the street from the church, is also included in the campus master plan as part of a design-build partnership with Straub Construction, Hollis + Miller Architects and Lankford | Fendler + Associates. 

The new plan unites the ECC and the church on the west side of Main street, with the goal of improving safety, security and functionality for students, faculty and staff.

"By relocating the ECC building to the main campus, students and teachers no longer have to cross the street at the busy intersection of 75th and Main. The new master plan provides a safer solution," said Joe Riedel, vice president of business development for Straub Construction.

Many of the students who now attend the school are the second —or even third — generation of families to attend St Elizabeth School.

"One of the coolest parts of this story is how so many current parents, who once attended the school themselves, have banded together to pay it forward to ensure the legacy of the school stays strong for the next 100 years," said Riedel.

The 20,000 SF project includes a conversion of the existing rectory, built in 1948, into modern learning spaces designed specifically for students pre-school through kindergarten. The main sanctuary will be renovated to improve accessibility, functionality, storage and acoustics.  

“The new Early Childhood Center at St. Elizabeth establishes an exciting vision for our parish and school moving forward. It strengthens our commitment to the education and religious formation of our children and locates all our school buildings in close proximity to one another. The new facility will be tailored to the needs of early childhood education and will enable us to serve more families in the Waldo area,” said St. Elizabeth Parish pastor, Fr. Greg Haskamp.

Renovations to the sanctuary are complete. The Early Childhood Center will be open for school in August 2020.

$26.5 billion Sprint and T-Mobile merger paves stability for Johnson County

Last week a federal judge ruled in favor of the $26.5 billion Sprint and T-Mobile merger, shutting down anti-trust arguments brought by a group of attorney generals and clearing the way for the merger to close as early as April this year.

Prior to this ruling, reports of concerns on the stability of Sprint as a standalone company if the merger was blocked, created uncertainty of Sprint and T-Mobiles’ future office presence in South Johnson County. 

"These fears are now alleviated, as the merger will pave the way for stability in the Kansas City office market and the companies’ commitment to remaining in Kansas City. All signs point to continued stability in Johnson County," according to a recent report by JLL Research*.

The former Sprint Campus, now renamed as The Campus, sold to Occidental Management in July 2019. That quarter, availability in South Johnson County increased 0.4% after several former Sprint spaces became available. 

Availability in South Johnson County currently stands at 13.7%, below the market average of 16.2%.

Sprint currently occupies an estimated 2.2M SF of The Campus, with long-term leases to remain in about 1M SF. Sprint has also committed to at least $25M of capital investment to improve their long-term space.

About 1.5M SF is currently leased by third party tenants; 120,000 SF of which was leased since Occidental acquired The Campus. About 130,000 SF is currently available and marketed for lease. Occidental Management plans to invest significant capital in the campus to add amenities and attract third-party tenants.

A Place For Mom recently leased 42,000 SF at The Campus to house their first Kansas City office and has plans to hire 600 new employees to the KC metro.

Sprint currently employs 6,000 people at the campus and has shared speculative plans to hire 1,000 more.

*Statistics, opinions and other facts in this article sourced by JLL Research.

Miller Stauch Construction shares love for KC, HQ projects

Miller Stauch Construction is currently working with Schier Products to build their new office headquarters at the corner of Woodland Drive and Shawnee Mission Parkway in Shawnee Mission, Ks.

The 52,000 SF building will include a combined office and warehouse space for the grease interceptor manufacturer's approximate 50 employees, who will be moving into their new state-of-the-art headquarters, designed by GBA, upon completion later this year.

But that's not the only office headquarters project Miller Stauch has working in KC.

First Heritage Bank and doorLink Manufacturing will also move into new office headquarters later this year, thanks to Miller Stauch, who is about to reach a milestone century of working in KC.

“Miller Stauch Construction has been building Kansas City for over 95 years. We love Kansas City and are proud to do our part to establish new homes for our clients,” said Grace Elmore, marketing manager for Miller Stauch.

First Heritage Bank, who currently has five locations in Kansas, is working with Miller Stauch and

Davidson Architecture & Engineering, to build their newest branch in the heart of Lenexa, Ks. The new HQ location includes 5,500 SF of space and will house the bank’s commercial banking division.

Residential and commercial door manufacturer, doorLink Manufacturing, will be moving into their new headquarters later this year as well. The new space includes 240,000 SF of office, manufacturing and distribution space in Riverside, Mo.

"Kansas City is rapidly growing and is making a name for itself on the national stage. Companies are planting their roots here, which is exciting to both participate in and experience,” said Greg Dean, director of business development for Miller Stauch.

Miller Stauch is an expert in the retail, office and industrial markets and has completed several similar projects in Kansas City over the years. This includes an 80,000 SF industrial office building for North American Safety Valve, completed in 2018.

"GBA has worked with Miller Stauch Construction for 35 years on many successful projects in the industrial/manufacturing sector. We truly enjoy the long-term partnership among their team and ours," Craig Rogge, principal for the GBA buildings group, said.

CoStar acquires RentPath for $588 million

CoStar Group, Inc., the leading provider of commercial real estate information, analytics and online marketplaces, announced today that it has signed an agreement to acquire RentPath’s business for $588 million in cash, in connection with RentPath’s recently announced Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

RentPath’s primary service is digital marketing for rental properties through a network of Internet listing websites including Rent.com, ApartmentGuide.com, Rentals.com and Lovely.com.

The RentPath network of websites generated over 21 million monthly visits and almost 9 million monthly unique visitors in 2019, according to comScore, and had approximately 28,000 properties advertised on its network as of December 2019.

“RentPath has a 30-year track record of outstanding service to the multifamily industry, developing thousands of meaningful customer relationships,” said Andrew C. Florance, founder and CEO of CoStar Group.

Following restructuring in bankruptcy, CoStar Group expects the combined companies to benefit from synergies and plans to invest in building RentPath’s online brands and traffic to provide improved quantity and quality of lead flow to advertising clients.

“We believe that RentPath’s talented and experienced employees will become valuable contributors not only to our Apartments.com network of sites but across all of our marketplaces.” Florance said.

The closing of the transaction is subject to various conditions, including approval by the bankruptcy court and regulatory approval, according to the release. 

KCADC launches national "KC Heartland" brand campaign

To celebrate and maximize Kansas City’s first NFL Super BowlTM appearance in fifty years, ambassadors from the KC region will attend watch parties in select cities across the U.S., including Miami, LA, DC, NYC and Chicago, doubling down on the region’s “KC Heartland” identity.

“The idea spurred from a recent tweet from Chiefs official reporter, BJ Kissel, who asked for pictures of the best Chiefs watch parties at bars/restaurants around the country,” said Tim Cowden, president and CEO of Kansas City Area Development Council (KCADC).

“Chiefs ‘embassies’ waved flags from major cities around the world in support of our beloved KC team - grabbing the attention of not only KC natives but fans across the U.S. The ultimate rationale behind this innovative and proactive effort is to drive awareness of KC as an ascending location for relocating companies and talent,” Cowden said. 

In the wake of the Chiefs’ January AFC Championship win, the economic impact of a global spotlight on Kansas City today versus fifty years ago is unprecedented. The opportunity has prompted business and civic leaders to strategize a way to amplify the momentum already underway in major markets, and mini-Chiefs Kingdoms, across the U.S. 

“There are only two cities who have the opportunity to be crowned the best American football team in the world each year, and this is our year. We are just following the lead of our MVP quarterback and ‘doing something special’ with this moment in time, letting the world know, KC is ‘just getting started.’” Cowden said.

Small teams of three to five civic and business leaders will attend watch parties at designated locations where Chiefs fans gather in Los Angeles, New York City, Washington, D.C., and Chicago. KCADC’s communications and media team is on the ground in Miami with key spokespeople from the KC region. 

“Pairing these ground activations with digital advertising in 23 target markets and several regional college campuses, KC heart branded flags, stickers and social media guides - the goal is an increased awareness and following of the KC Heartland channels and storytelling. We are inviting the world into a relationship with our KC region - as visitors, customers, employees and investors - which all impact our region’s growth and prosperity,” Cowden said.

The brand will not only be making a splash in watch parties across the nation on Sunday, but also at the heart of it all in Kansas City - The KC Power & Light District. Ambassadors will be engaging fans with KC Heart props, photo opps, KC Live screen presence and more.